Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Kallikrates]

thanks, of course I realized some of the graphics changes and I remember the music changes (now I usually switch it off).

 

[ArchAngel1591]

I know you can rename units in World Edit with no character limit but when I try to rename the units the normal way It has a character limit is there a file I can edit where i can extend that limit?

 

[Manco Capac]

The music changes too. I think that about covers it.

WFYABTA changes.

 

[Sisiutil]

WFYABTA changes.

Oh, yes, right--the AI may "forgive" one tech trade when the age changes, IIRC...

 

[Manco Capac]

I wonder if this is urban legend as I never bothered to look for it in the code...

Anyways, era changes affect way more the AI than the human players. Especially the discount per era. On deity, it's 5% per era on everything. Try to imagine 5 eras later...

If such thing existed for human players, beelining would be even more jusfiable than ever.

From what I recall from some of my past incursions in the code (SDK), I saw multiple calls of era functions in the game. I don't know about the effects on the human player (as I focus on AI files), but there are a lot of little era influences on the AI's. Like resource costs through ages, acceptable era for AI to start gunning cultural, etc.

 

[God-Emperor]

I wonder if this is urban legend as I never bothered to look for it in the code...

Anyways, era changes affect way more the AI than the human players. Especially the discount per era. On deity, it's 5% per era on everything. Try to imagine 5 eras later...

If such thing existed for human players, beelining would be even more jusfiable than ever.

From what I recall from some of my past incursions in the code (SDK), I saw multiple calls of era functions in the game. I don't know about the effects on the human player (as I focus on AI files), but there are a lot of little era influences on the AI's. Like resource costs through ages, acceptable era for AI to start gunning cultural, etc.

It's true for the AI on higher difficulty levels. It is controlled by the iAIPerEraModifier in CIV4HandicapInfo.xml. There is no equivalent setting for the human player.

Every difficulty below Prince has this set to 0, so advancing in era does not benefit the AI like this on those difficulties.

At Prince it is -1, Monarch has -2, Emperor has -3, Immortal has -4, and Deity has -5.

These are percentage changes (so reductions, as they are all negative) in the cost of some list of things for the AI. I'm not sure what the full list is, but I think it includes the cost to build units and buildings, and probably projects. It also reduces the support costs for units and civics, and the amount of food a city needs to grow. I think it also reduces the already reduced cost to upgrade units (the AI already gets 50% off for this at all difficulty levels via the iAIUnitUpgradePercent setting which is set to 50 for all difficulty levels).

 

[Nexlev]

Longtime lurker, first-time poster here.

Something strange happened to me today in civ iv. The game is saying that I declared war on Hammarabi and Ragnar (his vassal) except.... I didn't. I reloaded a save to see if I maybe had accidentally declared war (not sure how I would've) but nope, I really didn't declare war.

The circumstances:
- year 1900
- I'm playing Alexander
- I'd just finished a war with Washington two turns prior in 1896
- Hammarabi is the leader of the UN, and Washington holds the Apostolic palace
- Ragnar is Hammarabi's vassal
- The event log says that I declared war on them, not visa versa

I thought perhaps this was an apostolic palace thing but it didn't go up for vote, so I think not. Can the UN somehow make you declare war on someone? Is this a super-cool espionage tactic that I was unaware of (i.e. did Washington somehow pull this on me?)

Any ideas?

 

[Manco Capac]

Once upon a time, deity AI's got 95% of unit upgrading. That was ridiculous.

The interesting part of those discounts is the lone wolf AI that decides by some RNG power to beeline deep in the tech tree and its research power increases "exponentially" as it does tech backfilling and get discounts through ages.

 

[Manco Capac]

U.N. is the peaceful AP. I mean it does not promote wars, but tries to appease factions.

If the AP is not behind it, I sense defense pact work here. DP works that if someone attacks your partner, you are forced to DoW them (in your case a team).

 

[Sisiutil]

U.N. is the peaceful AP. I mean it does not promote wars, but tries to appease factions.

If the AP is not behind it, I sense defense pact work here. DP works that if someone attacks your partner, you are forced to DoW them (in your case a team).

Yes, I thought the same thing.

That raises a question for me: Does the AI consider DPs before it declares war? For example, does the AI now consider the combined power ratings of the DP partners?

This might be complicated by the fact that the AI decides to go to war a few to several turns before actually declaring. If a DP is signed in the meantime, is that considered or not?

 

[Lennier]

Longtime lurker, first-time poster here.

Something strange happened to me today in civ iv. The game is saying that I declared war on Hammarabi and Ragnar (his vassal) except.... I didn't. I reloaded a save to see if I maybe had accidentally declared war (not sure how I would've) but nope, I really didn't declare war.

The circumstances:
- year 1900
- I'm playing Alexander
- I'd just finished a war with Washington two turns prior in 1896
- Hammarabi is the leader of the UN, and Washington holds the Apostolic palace
- Ragnar is Hammarabi's vassal
- The event log says that I declared war on them, not visa versa

I thought perhaps this was an apostolic palace thing but it didn't go up for vote, so I think not. Can the UN somehow make you declare war on someone? Is this a super-cool espionage tactic that I was unaware of (i.e. did Washington somehow pull this on me?)

Any ideas?

Did you accept a peace vassal? If so, you automatically declare war on everyone your new vassal is at war with.

My other idea is that you fell victim to TMIT's "interface thinks you're control-clicking when you're not" bug, which can cause accidental declarations of war.

 

[Manco Capac]

My other idea is that you fell victim to TMIT's "interface thinks you're control-clicking when you're not" bug, which can cause accidental declarations of war.

ALT+CLICK leader name

 

[Lennier]

No wonder I've never seen it. I very rarely do alt-clicking. (I'm running a Mac, so I'm not even sure what the alt equivalent is.)

 

[s.bernbaum]

No wonder I've never seen it. I very rarely do alt-clicking. (I'm running a Mac, so I'm not even sure what the alt equivalent is.)

It's the option key. In general, anything on Windows that uses the alt key uses the option key on the Mac. Electronically, they are the same key on your keyboard. As far as CIV is concerned, they stuck with that when it was ported.

 

[Nexlev]

So I reloaded the savegame, double-checked; no defensive pacts signed, and I didn't become someones vassal.

My other idea is that you fell victim to TMIT's "interface thinks you're control-clicking when you're not" bug, which can cause accidental declarations of war.

That's what I thought at first too, but when I reloaded and tried to play again the same thing happened two more times, so I don't think it's an errant click.

I'm now thinking this is just a bug of some kind. It's just weird. I've been playing the game about a year, borderline obsessively, and this is the first time anything like this has happened to me.

For anyone who's curious, I attached the savegame, two turns before the declaration of war occurs

 

[God-Emperor]

I seem to recall that there is a random event that has an option that will cause the other player to declare war on the one that gets the event (although I think the text makes it sound like it would be you declaring war on them if you get the event). So perhaps the AI got the event and you were the other player. If so, there should be some mention of the event in the messages.

 

[Darth Feather]

I have a newbie question: Why bother building large fleets. I find them usually quite useless. I mean, I don't often do naval invasions.

 

[dalamb]

You might want to protect yourself from naval invasions. But I suspect the main answer is: if someone likes conquest or domination victories, they can't do it on a multi-landmass map without a big fleet. If you never play those victory conditions, or never play that kind of map, a navy probably isn't much use.

 

[Jwitti]

Also, usually boats are faster, so if you're moving along coast you could quickly move your army from place to place, especially outside your territory where you wouldn't have roads.

 

[Silv Something]

Or, if you are attacking someone on your same continent but don't want to go through a chokepoint or don't have open borders, you can ship your army to your enemy's doorstep.